Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 22:25:49 -0500
From: "William H. Smith"
Subject: 'see' or 'say'
Has anyone else heard the onset of front tense vowels being lowered beyond
the adjacent lax vowels? In northeast Georgia I hear /i/ realized as [ey],
so that 'see' sounds like 'say'; and /e/ realized as [aey] ([ae] = ash), or
even as [ay], so that 'day' may sound like 'die'. (The area has
monophthongal /ay/, so there is no merger.)
I haven't read Labov's book on sound change, but isn't this in violation of
his principle (if I understand it correctly) that peripheral vowels tend to
move upward?
Bill Smith
Piedmont College
wh5mith[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]aol.com